Pope Benedict says gay marriage is one of several threats to the traditional family that undermines “the future of humanity itself”.

The pope made some of his strongest comments against gay marriage in a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican in which he touched on some economic and social issues facing the world today.

He told diplomats from nearly 180 countries that the education of children needed proper “settings” and that “pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman”.

“This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself,” he said.

The Vatican and Catholic officials around the world have protested against moves to legalise gay marriage in Europe and other developed parts of the world.

If it’s about procreation…newsflash, gay couples are probably not having children whether they are married or not. If it’s about ‘traditional marriage’ I guess the question is then…”which traditional marriage are you talking about?”

People site that reason all the time and I’ve never understood it.

Traditionally, two people agreed to be married…and that was it…they were married. Prior to the Theodosian Code it was both same sex, and opposite sex couples agreeing to this…is that the traditional marriage we are talking about? Obviously not.

Are we talking about the ‘traditional marriage’ where the woman (or often girls as young as 12) we given to a man to gain the family wealth? It was more a transaction of wealth than a modern marriage…obviously not.

Are we talking about one man and many wives which is a traditions over the ages in many countries and to many cultures? Obviously not.

I think what people are saying when they say ‘traditional marriage’ is, for want or a more eloquent description, a marriage of the 1950’s because that about how far back you need to go to include the church with marriage. So traditional marriage is the marriage of the 1950’s…but certainly excludes a lot of traditions around other eras and by other cultures…but I guess if we thought too hard about what ‘traditional marriage’ meant, then it wouldn’t fit the narrative of those trying to ‘sell the sizzle’ of traditional marriage.

Finally here is something the churches of the world need to understand. In 2012 you no longer own marriage. In fact you haven’t owned it for a very long time, you did at one stage when people got married ‘before God’, but now that one needs to sign a certificate, which is a government document, and you cannot be married without one, marriage now belongs to the Government.

And since it does belong to the Government I cannot see how it is ethical to exclude a sector of society in partaking in that Government institution.

So I ask again, how, oh how will gay marriage be the downfall of modern society?

The head of Australia’s peak migrant body has hit back at Brisbane MP Teresa Gambaro’s comments that migrants should be taught to use deodorant and to queue, saying the statement had no place in modern Australia.

“Teresa Gambaro comes from the same background as mine and we grew up being called dirty wogs,” said Pino Migliorino, chairman of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils, who has Italian heritage.

Migliorino said the comments would make Australia “look like a joke” to the international community and damage efforts by employers to fill skills shortages by attracting overseas workers.

“This is no longer the 1960s, temporary migrants are people coming from a university background. To say ‘you smell’ is ridiculous,” he said.

He said Gambaro’s statement also undermined the federal Coalition’s policy stance on encouraging skilled migration.

“The Liberal opposition are on record as saying they want all of our migration to be skills-based. Australia is courting for temporary labour in a competitive international market,” Migliorino said.

Gambaro told The Australian newspaper new migrants on temporary work visas were not integrating into the community because they were not being taught about Australian health, hygiene and lifestyle.

“Without trying to be offensive, we are talking about hygiene and what is an acceptable norm in this country when you are working closely with other co-workers,” she was quoted as saying.

Pigliorino responded: “Those comments are so silly and ridiculous.”

Labor MP Michelle Rowland called for Gambaro to apologise for insulting skilled migrants.

”Her comments are insulting and insensitive to the many doctors, nurses, accountants and engineers who have come to Australia on a skilled migration visa,” said Rowland.

”Skilled migrants come to Australia to work in hospitals, care for our elderly, and fill gaps in regional and remote areas.”

Rowland said she was proud to respresent an electorate, Greenway, with a large number of migrants including Filipinos, Indians and Tamils.

“The comments are unbecoming and irresponsible and Mr Abbott should come clean on whether he supports Ms Gambaro’s views,” she said.

I remember a teacher I had who smelt so bad that the corridor outside his or her (neutral ah?) office smelt even when they were not there. Just as an aside 😉

Like this:

12 months ago a horrific event happened in America when a man came into a public meeting being held by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and shot the place up. He killed 6 people and injured 12 one of which was Giffords whom he shot through the head.

At the time Sarah Palin caught some heat as she had a map on her homepage with rifle ‘crosshairs’ on Giffords electorate. Some accussed Palin of flaming the fire and influencing this event. If it was as simple to get rid of ‘crazy’ by simply removing an image here, or not have a pundit ‘blame the opposing political view’ there, then ‘crazy’ would be gone very quickly, however no matter how careful we are, crazy always find a way.

The reports of the last few days though have saddened me, demonstrating the ‘eye for an eye’ mentality coming out of America.

Jared Loughner is the man who fired the shots, Jared Loughner murdered 6 people in cold blood, Jared Loughner is a drop out from society and a loner. Jared Loughner is also a sick man, he is schizophrenic.

Loughner has been found by two medical experts to be ‘mentally incompetent to stand trial.’ He is schizophrenic now, and was in a schizophrenic episode at the time of the shooting.

There is debate around Loughner about forcing him to take his meds. He is currently in a mental health facility and American law does not allow the doctors there to force meds onto him. Therefore he is still in a pretty bad way. As a general rule, if someone is impaired to a point where they cannot make healthy decisions for themselves, I think it’s usually okay for medical intervention, with family consultation, to help that person. So initially I thought these medical professionals should intervene to help this man get better. But that is not the reason that people wanted Jared Loughner to ‘get better’.

They wanted him to ‘get better’ so they could kill him.

They call ‘getting better’ from schizophrenia ‘being restored’ and some are waiting for him to be ‘restored’ to some level of acceptable mental state to then fry him.

Legal experts say it is quite common for defendants suffering from schizophrenia to be restored to competency and proceed to trial. That is just a matter of time.

“The level of competency is not very high,” said Lynda Frost, planning and programs director for the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas-Austin. “It’s a minimal level of functioning and most people can be restored.”

This ‘eye-for-an-eye’ mentality is the worst of America. The society who helps the world when it’s in trouble, at the same time as invading a country that did them no harm. The country that won’t elect a president unless they ‘love Israel and God’, but happily put to death hundreds a year. America is a series of juxtapositions, saying one thing and doing another.

My one hope is the example in this sad story of the parents of 9 year old Christina-Talor, one of the people killed one year ago. John Green is a ‘believer in the death penalty’ and whose wife Roxanna has just written a book called ‘It’s not going to bring my girl back’, was asked if the death penalty here would bring him comfort. His response was “Not really.”

Just two little words that for me, bring some kind of hope to the reality that the tragic death of someone, is not fixed, solved, or closed…by killing another…even if they deserve it

Well one week ago I started this new blog and just wanted to say thanks to all those who have jumped on and had a look, who have made comments and who have started following my writings.

In the first seven days I have nearly 4,000 visits which is very small compared to places like Kiwiblog and Whaleoil, but it’s a start and I am hoping together we can make something of this community and continue the conversations that some of us have been having on Newstalk ZB for the last 5 years.

My objective for the blog is to make it more interactive with more opinion by you than perhaps other blogs, this will hopefully be more of a conversation between many people, rather than you coming here and reading just my ramblings.